Demographics
With an estimated population of 1.15 billion,[9] representing 17% of the world population,[107] India is the world's second most populous country. The last 50 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity[108] made by the green revolution.[109] Almost 70% of Indians reside in rural areas, although in recent decades migration to larger cities has led to a dramatic increase in the country's urban population. India's largest cities are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.[54]
India is the most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African continent.[54] India is home to two major linguistic families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (spoken by about 24%). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic families. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers,[110] is the official language of the union.[111] English, which is extensively used in business and administration, has the status of a 'subsidiary official language;'[112] it is also important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. In addition, every state and union territory has its own official languages, and the constitution also recognises in particular 21 other languages that are either abundantly spoken or have classical status. While Sanskrit and Tamil have been studied as classical languages for many years,[113] the Government of India, using its own criteria, has also accorded classical language status to Kannada and Telugu.[114] The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.[115]
Over 800 million Indians (80.5%) are Hindu. Other religious groups include Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahá'ís and others.[116] Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population.[117]
India's literacy rate is 64.8% (53.7% for females and 75.3% for males).[9] The state of Kerala has the highest literacy rate (91%);[118] Bihar has the lowest (47%).[119] The national human sex ratio is 944 females per 1,000 males. India's median age is 24.9, and the population growth rate of 1.38% per annum; there are 22.01 births per 1,000 people per year.[9]
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